A lemon beagle born on March 28th, 2009 in Swansea MA to Joey and Willow, Indy lived a great life and was deeply loved by his family: Lynn, Eva and Steve.

Indy enjoyed meatballs, sniffing for bunnies, playing “Chase-me Chasey” and “The Grrrr Game”, going for “walks” (i.e. dragging Steve around hunting for bunnies), howling at the neighbors, sleeping on his back, ripping the squeaker out of every toy he ever owned and watching our beloved Red Sox.

A Burns Supper is a remarkable event, and one that I highly recommend you attend. The poetry of the Plowmen Bard is romantic, sentimental, lustful, honest, satirical, humorous and authentic for the 1780’s in which he wrote through now and forever.

On the next January 25th, if you can find a Burns Supper being hosted near you: I highly recommend that attend. It’s a beautiful way to celebrate the life of the Ploughman Bard.

Tim Doiron was one of the first fellow runners and listener to this podcast who I actually ran with in person.

Here was a guy who knew pretty much everything about me: a natural by-product of the new podcasting phenomenon, and our friendship went on from there: running races together, running Mojo Loco’s, and attending baseball games here in in the city of Wooostah.

On behalf of my Dad and the woman who gave my siblings and I life, who in turn gave life to her grandchildren…We want to thank you with all of our hearts for being here today.

I’m Stephen John, Loretta’s first child and like you, I will always miss her.

But then there’s this weird thing, and I know my Mom was keenly aware of this: “the phenomenon of living on in your progeny”

Her influence, taste, opinion, knowledge, philosophy, story and voice…will continue to live on within us.

My Mom, or “Ra Ra” as her grandchildren call her, was always good at remembering special days with a card. Every year on Ellen’s birthday (December 25th) she’d write “you’re still my best Christmas present ever!” on her birthday card…and so on Christmas Day, 2009 when Ellen broke the news that she was pregnant with the twins giving my Mom a framed print of the ultrasound: Mom squealed loudly with joy and said “Ellen, If you EVER need ANY help with the kids, I mean ANYTHING just let me know…I’ll send Dad over.”

I used to joke with her that she was the curator of “Cliche Hell”…because she would always have just the right hackneyed phrase of wit to underscore the situation.

If something went wrong she’d say: “When life gives you lemons make lemonade”

If you were feeling pressure or tension she’d say: “Stressed spelled backwards is dessert”

If you listen very carefully you can still hear her now: “Stephen”, she’ll say:

SUSAN: “Those of you who think you know so much are very annoying to those of us who do”.

See what I mean? She had a knack for comic delivery.

My Mom, Loretta: is obviously still with us: she has influenced and metaphorically touched us in ways that we can’t understand at the momement.

You may have heard some of us use the phrase “Tri-si-so”. It’s a term of endearment of which I am the author ,but there’s an element of body language associated with it you may not know about. When I was a child, before developing this amazing skill of speech, my Mom would ask: “Stephen, how much do you love me?” to which I’d respond, arms open wide “Tri-Si-So”. It means “This much: With all my heart”.

You want to experience my Mom’s presence? That’s easy: just spend some time with her children.

Ellen will demonstrate her strength,

Susan will demonstrate her love of friends and family,

Mark will demonstrate his kindness to creatures great and small.

Her grandchildren will demonstrate her love of adventure, stories and giving.

And I, I can tell you of her compassion, it wasn’t just “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” kind of compassion…she was more of a “be kind to others” kinda person. She always voted for the party of “do no harm”: JFK, RFK, Carter, Clinton, and Obama: you’re welcome…she even voted with compassion.

Whenever we had a problem... Moms solution was always to follow the path of kindness.

My Mom, Loretta, was a big beliver in authenticty: she taught her children and grandchildren to embrace the experiences of life, to cherish the arts of theatre, music, food, and the epic shouts and laughter of an Italian Family Dinner.

She traveled the world and encouraged us to do the same…not just to see the world, but to taste, hear, smell and feel it. She wanted us to experience the world fully and authentically.

Mom and Dad didn’t just visit Italy, They emersed themselves in it, savoring the land of her ancestors.

Last Thursday I asked my Dad go to Fenway with me for game one of the ALCS. He didn’t want to leave Mom alone, of course. She died holding his hand. “Don’t leave me” she said, her last words in life. As you’d expect: He didn’t.

When my siblings, neices and nephews were children, my Mom would read to us and encouraged us to do so as well. Mom is why her children and grandchildren have always loved to read…except maybe for Johnny, because: well…he’s Johnny.

In these troublesome times for our Country and World, you should know that there is a dude. A dude who asks only for the occasional adult beverage, a dude who does mind, the Dude minds. “This will not stand”, he’ll say, “ya know, this aggression will not stand man.”

Mike is the dude, so that’s what you call him. That or His Dudeness of Duder or El Duderino if your not into the whole brevity thing. Above all, the Dude Abides: and you should find comfort in that.

"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

It’s about acknowledging all the emails, text messages, tweets, updates, news flashes, alerts, alarms and distractions without engaging with them for a few minutes

It’s about learning how to interact with the universe around us in a focused, meaningful, thoughtful way.

We’re standing or sitting or laying down on a planet that is orbiting around it’s axis once a day, and orbits a star every year and rises and falls up and down along the plane of a universe every 125 million years that has spinning away from the galactic center

My nephew Johnny is my first "guest" on this new format of the podcast Phedippidations. As I move closer to my 13th year of podcasting, it's time to get back to the roots of this "show". Johnny was my absolute last choice to embark on this new venture. We're all doomed.

I went to "THE BOOK OF FACES" lately, where I have a Phedippidations Facebook pagey-thing, and I asked for advice with a creative block I've been suffering. Also, I talk about transcendental meditation vs mindful meditation as if I even know what I'm talking about (hint: I don't).

A great book that I'm reading is "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari. I highly recommend this great book about the history of mankind. Also, I contemplate (not meditate) on the benefits that guided meditation has brought me.

In response to a very thoughtful email from fellow runner Rick, I present for you my response. We agree on most things, disagree on others...but we're NOT "disagreeable" with each other. There's a lesson in this for the rest of 'Merica.

In this episode of Intervals, I PROMISE you that I'm working on a new episode of Phedippidations! A big CONGRATS to the runners of the Boston Marathon and my efforts to drink more water and getting off the pills!

First a response to fellow runner Roy, who points out that "No one ever in the history of the world finished a run and regretted having set out". Also, I talk about a Facebook post that a bunch of family and friends completely misunderstood.

I've got three things to talk about today. The guns bit won't take long, as there's not much to say. The gadgets bit, takes a bit longer...because I loves me gadgets, and the goodbye to my friend Kevin...I'm going to miss that guy.

In Part Two of my brief discussion about THE GREATEST SCIENCE FICTION ENTERPRISE IN HUMAN HISTORY (Doctor Who), I give advice on how to watch the show, for those who might be interested yet have never "dabbled in the timey wimey".

Today’s episode is an addendum to my last episode, number 343 “Dr. George Sheehan: Beginning”. Although not a prerequisite to listening to this, Alot of what I’m going to say about running flows directly from what Dr. Sheehan had to say about taking to the road and lacing up our shoes.

Anhedonia is a symptom of
depression...and it's a pretty rotten symptom, but like most things
in this life, it can be overcome. If you ever find yourself
suffering from a loss of passion: don’t give up. Talk to your doctor and get
help.

Here’s the problem with almost all of the processed foods that are available to us today:

They’re convenient, easy to prepare if preparation is even necessary, they’re easily accessible, inexpensive, and uber-laden with multiple forms of sugar, salt and fat. Today’s highly processed foods are easy to get calories from without alot of chewing…most processed food melts in your mouth and proceed without delay down your gullet.

I'm not telling you what to eat, I'm just saying to think about it....there's no conspiracy here but food corporations want you to over eat everything they make....that's just good business on their part, but it takes wisdom to purchase and consume what can only be called "real food".